The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1887-12-16
soME ooop suooEsTIoNs.
MAskAro, MINI. Dee. ., 1887

The editorial contained IN your issue
Of the 9th inst. suggests 70 my mind
several radical changes in the present
Ordinances, in 20 far as they relate to
| public works. There has been an ordi-
nance passed wherein the contractor is
only required when doing work for the
city, TO make affidavit that his bills for
material and wages have been paid,
whereupon an estimate is made by the
city engineer and passed by the COM
mon council and the contractor receives
his money.
| This ordinance, il would appear to me,
is drawn in a very loose manner, from
the fact that the present contractor for
the sewer on Front street has twice
made affidavit that his labor and ma
terial bills were paid when such was
/ not the case / am also informed that
the contractor furnished the city with
acceptable bonds for the faithful per-
formance and execution Of his contract,
and also bonds for the payment for la
Dor and material. Under the eircum-
stances, the question arises, is not the
city liable 10 the laboring. men and the
| furnishers OF material for the work and
4 iAihbCIldl W Tie bbF6cL
sewer which have not already been paid
for by the contractor?
The laboring man and the furnishers
OF material have no reason to look to the
bondsmen for their pay, from the fact
that the city has undertaken TO secure
the laboring man and the furnisbers
| OF material from any loss by exacting
bond for the payment Of their bills, and
| 1t would appear to me that such being
the case, the parties to whom the con-
| tractor is owing would have recourse
only to the city for the collection of
| their claims.
Would it not be a wise plan for the
| council to incorporate in the ordinance
relative to the payment Of bills for con-
tract work a provision that duplicate
! bills and pay-rolls be first furnished to
the city engineer and that said bills and
pay-rolls should have first been paid and
the receipts attached, before any esti-
mate is allowed to the contractor, or
some provision made, whereby the
amount of all unpaid bills be deducted
from the estimate and paid by the CITY
recorder, in order that the laboring man
and the material furnisher may not be
obliged to wait for their money until
such time as it pleases the contractor to
pay for the same.
All of the difficulty in relation to this
sewer contract might have been obviat-
ed had the committee on sewerage tax
en- the ''bull by the horns" at first,
and extended their protection to the la
boring man and the material furnIsher
on the start, which would have secured
to them their pay before such severe
losses had been entailed in the work as
to bankrupt the contractor. Would it
not also no q tEiEa falan tho MT ~
the common council to refuse TO the
contractor any extension oftime beyond
the 10th day of December, at which
time the contract was to have been COM
pleted, and any failure on the part of
the contractor to finish his contract by
that time should annul the contract, and
upon that day, notify the bondsmen that
they must either complete the work and
pay the bills or the city would do it at
their expense. We're this properly done
and the question not allowed to drag
along until the contractor became so
hopelessly involved i'll his efforts to
complete the job this winter, as to fur
theT increase his liabilities, would it not
be great saving not only TO the city but
to the bondsmen?
1t is evident that the work being per-
formed now requires five times the la
the case had the work been driyen for
ward by the committee on sewerage
during the proper season.
There should be no excuses allowed
for this work not being completed at the
present date.
This muddle also suggests the propri-
ETY. of organizing board of public
works composed of three thoroughly re-
liable mechanics who, in conjunction
with the city engineer would have en-
tire control of our public works, for GER
tain it is that members who accept seats
in the common council, and appoint
ments to the various committees, being
engaged in mercantile pursuits cannot
consistently give to the work that super
vision which their obligations to the
city really demand, and there certainly
would be a very large saving in our
yearly expenditures for public works.
| would suggest that first-class ma
son, a first-class carpenter, and a first
class mechanic be appointed topositIons
on the Board of Public Works, and that
q salary sufficiently high be paid to Sc
cure the services of first-class men,
whose whole time and attention could
be given to the work in hand. This,
then, would relieve the members of the
various committees from any response
bility further than recommendations for
work in their various departments, and
the supervision and auditing of the var
ious bills which had been contracted for
and approved by the Board of Public
Works. While this proposition may APP
pear to some to be an extravagant idea
/ venture to assert that more than
double the salaries of Board of Public
Works would be saved each year through
their services being constantly applied
to work directly under their supervision.
As the matter stands to-day there is
reckless and eNtravagant waste of the
peoples money, and IT can only be ac-
counted for by the Indisposition on the
part of the members of the common
council who are on the various commit
tees, to taking off their coats and enter
ing into the work with that spirit which
is at all times necessary to further the
peoples interests.
If, under the present charter, the city
council has the right to organize a
Board of Public Works, why not take
the question up Immediately and make
the appointments, for it is absolutely
certain that the coming year will devel-
OPP the fact that a large amount of public
work will be necessary to be done, es-
pecially in the way of sewers, curbing
and grading? If this Board of Public
Works were organized IN time all of the
plans for the coming year could be fully
matured and nothing done hastily that
would have to be torn mp and done
over again. A CITIZEN.